In recent years, the variety of mobile communication devices, subscription plans, and other services available to customers have expanded. Many mobile wireless network operators offer mobile devices including smartphones and basic mobile phones, tablets, hotspots, and mobile modems, each of which may offer different features, performance, or connectivity than competing devices. The operators further offer subscription plans and prepaid service plans for communication services, including plans offering wireless mobile communication service for voice calls, mobile messaging services (e.g., text and/or multimedia messages), and data communications, which may be limited to a particular device or shared across multiple devices. Data services and other services may further be subject to limits on communication speed or other performance metrics, upload/download volume, ability to tether a device, etc.
Because of the variety of products and services available from mobile wireless network operators, customers can find the process of comparing, selecting, and purchasing mobile device(s) and associated subscription plan(s) to be confusing and complicated. Such confusion can arise as customers shop for devices, subscription or prepaid plains, or services in retail stores. For example, when entering a retail store, customers must often do work to gain a meaningful comparison between their current products and services and the products and services that are offered by the retailer. This work involves the customers identifying their current products and/or service plans, and identifying the features of the products or service plans that the customers have access to and make use of, or that the customers need or desire but do not currently have access to. Then, the customers must compare the information regarding what they have, what they need or desire, and what a retailer is offering in order to identify the product/device/service to purchase.
Retailers have tried to improve the product/service selection process by integrating information on a customer's previous interactions with a retail store, general consumer data, and information on the customer's account information or contract details to help the customer make decisions and select a product or service. However, customers do not have access to this information when in a retail store. Also, in-store service representatives generally do not have access to the information, and as a result only have a limited view on a customer's usage or needs. Furthermore, even in situations in which in-store representatives can retrieve customers' account information from a computer terminal, the lookup process takes time and is therefore often avoided by customers who find it to be an inconvenience. Furthermore, the information is generally only retrieved by a customer service representative after the customer has made a purchase decision and has queued in line to pay for the purchase, i.e. at a time that is too late for the representative to provide in-depth help to the customer.
A need therefore exists for methods and systems of providing a personalized retail experience to a customer in a retail store, for example to assist the customer in comparing and selecting products and services for purchase. A need further exists for methods and systems of providing retail store representatives with customer information so as to better assist customers in the retail store.